It really hadn’t occurred to me how much strategy games have changed in the last decade until Fantasy Wars came along. These days it’s not considered an epic battle without morbid, snarling, murky scenes of impending doom and flying blood at the gates of Helm’s Deep, but retro gamers out there will delight to see the colourful, vibrant landscapes, larger than life heroes and easily accessible interface that harkens back to the days when good looks were secondary to exciting gameplay.

The story of Fantasy Wars is equally classic in its Tolkeinian imagination – humans, orcs, elves and dwarves battle it out to quell the intolerable presence of the others in a world where sword and sorcery rule, but with enough of a twist and tangible purpose to contend with contemporary visions of Middle Earth and Dungeons & Dragons. Everything the word “fantasy” conjures from your childhood memory is present and correct; filtered through an extra few years of dungeon roaming, orc-warring legacies for extra refinement.

The simple interface (an overly complex millstone around the necks of too many strategy games these days) makes Fantasy Wars a breeze to pick up and play, but still ensures all required commands and actions are right at the player’s fingertips. This refined control system also helps to keep the action on screen, rather than becoming a dexterous challenge to operate a full keyboard, mouse and graphical interface while conquering a savage enemy hoard. Austerity is the keyword here, and it’s used to tremendous effect. Less is more, and all that.

Playing from the point of view of one of the three races (humans, orcs and elves), the storylines wing players from one battle to the next without ever feeling forced, while quietly progressing the plot and delivering enough variety of gameplay (from all out war to castle sieges and settlement conquering) to keep you fixed firmly in front of the monitor. That vital, yet all too elusive “just one more go” feeling permeates the gameplay at every juncture.

A huge variety of regiments provide every expectation without taking liberties with the established parameters of good fantasy convention – archers, cavalry, snarling (and well turned out, in the case of elves) infantry, spear regiments, magicians, heavy war machinery and aerial units (the giant eagles were a personal favourite – a nice and unexpected addition to the ranks). By carefully combining these standard elements, armies suitable for every mission and every eventuality can be fashioned once players have thoroughly experimented with each level.

And this is the real key to Fantasy Wars, since it’s damn hard. After the first couple of introductory levels, the developers expect some serious dedication from the player, and evidently stacked the odds to prevent the underhanded tactic of shoring up a vast wealth and unit experience in early stages so brute force, numbers and ignorance can trounce through any future contingency. Pillaging and conquering villages along the way brings in some small amounts of cash and replenishes a few troops (also occasionally offering something special, along the lines of a hero equipped for the forthcoming battle), but certainly not enough to buy an empire.

Indeed, the harsh difficulty level could put more casual or impatient players off – as the huge losses felt in most every battle means most of your money goes on desperately trying to maintain an equilibrium, with rarely enough dosh left over to hire mercenaries or kit out your surviving troops with better equipment. Regardless of your success, you can pretty much guarantee initial failure on the next level until some kind of strategy has been formed through trial and error. Getting to know the superb terrains, which are invigoratingly layered with strategic opportunities (ignore them at your peril), is vital to progression and deepens the core mechanics of Fantasy Wars already engrossing gameplay.

But on reflection, this is, after all, a strategy game, and it has to be noted that developing a working tactic for each individual mission (something that should be key to every strategy game) is central to Fantasy War’s gameplay because of the unsympathetic difficulty level, rather than despite it. A subtle and careful structuring of each level’s events also spurs a keen gamer on – providing small achievements and waypoints even in the event of failure, so success, despite its immense difficulty, never seems too far away.

Fantasy Wars is a return to classic strategy games – a treat for those who remember what it was like before games all ran in “real time”, and when an epic battle could take place without it pouring with rain. True enough, the retro-esque visage and gameplay might put some modern gamers off, but those willing to give it a try will find a wealth of challenges and hours of textbook fantasising awaits.